My screenshot depicts me writing music using a composition program called Powertab. This program is extremely useful because it presents the work in standard musical notation, guitar tablature, and midi. Therefore, the guitar players in my band can deduce what to play by reading the notes, tabs, and listening to the song. Not only is Powertab provide a way to save your compositions, it is a great learning tool.

Composing music in a digital space definitely changes the way I tackle the project. Perhaps the most useful feature of Powertab is hearing what you have written played back to you with whatever tempo or tone you desire. This is especially useful when there are several tracks or you are trying to get some harmonies just right. Additionally, the simple copy and paste function make revisions quick and easy.

However, there are some important things to keep in mind when writing music on a PC. One must remember that real guitars sound much different than the midi playback and that the music needs to be tabbed out in player-friendly fashion. It is also much easier to lose sight of musical intent and level of difficultly using Powertab as opposed to the more traditional way of composing using an instrument.

One way to better understand how to compose music in the digital space is to couple software like Powertab with the traditional way of using an instrument. Using the program alone, you must formulate and arrange musical ideas in your head which is challenging and can lead to some of the previously mentioned difficulties. Using the instrument as the primary writing tool is probably the way to go so as to achieve the best composition.